Ron Paul chastised police reaction to the search for a suspect in the Boston bombings that brought the city to a halt for one entire day.

Paul, a former Texas congressman, likened the shutdown of a major American city and military assistance to “a taste of martial law” and ”a military coup in a far off banana republic,” in a piece he wrote today on libertarian author Lew Rockwell’s website.

“The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city,” Paul wrote. “This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.”

Diners sit at an outdoor cafe on Newbury Street in Boston while military police guard an intersection near the place where two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon.(AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

The libertarian wrote that the media contributed to the apprehension behind the manhunt for 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarneav and the city-wide shutdown didn’t help investigators apprehend the suspect.

“The suspect was not discovered by the paramilitary troops terrorizing the public. He was discovered by a private citizen, who then placed a call to the police. And he was identified not by government surveillance cameras, but by private citizens who willingly shared their photographs with the police,” Paul wrote.

Tsarneav was found by a Watertown, Mass. resident, hidden in the boat parked in their backyard.

Paul is a self-proclaimed non-interventionist who has greatly opposed a United States military presence any part of the world, let a lone on American streets. He recently announced the launch of an institute focused on promoting non-interventionist policies.

Paul has past ties with Rockwell, who oversaw the production of the “Ron Paul Political Report” newsletter in the 1980s and 1990s.